Ammunition

9 posts
Ordnance

Cheaper Than Dirt, Again

1 comment

Right after the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, online retailer Cheaper than Dirt announced they would no longer be selling firearms. What they actually did was hold back their inventory, wait until other retailers sold out in the panic, then release the inventory at inflated prices. In case you don’t remember, I took a screenshot of their site at the time.

It was a cheap and dishonest way to take advantage of a stressful situation, and because the gun culture forgave and forgot, they’re at it again.  This time, they’ve at least dropped the outright deception.  I suppose that’s something, but they’re still gouging on their prices.

That’s about three times what retail pricing should be on that ammunition.

They are not our friends.  They do not deserve your business.

Ordnance

CZ P-01 Revisited

CZ P-01

18 months now, ~2400 rounds, one failure.  One, and that was with oddball 147gr subsonic ammunition.  The pistol has fed nine separate factory defensive loadings and countless target loads without fail.

I continue to be quite pleased with it.

Ordnance

An Embarrassment of Cartridges

I’ve been clearing this up for a lot of people this week.  If you’re new to shooting, it’s easy to look at the huge variety of ammunition out there and get incredibly confused.  There is nothing wrong with asking, and it’s far preferable to blowing up a gun or getting hurt.

Here are a few of the misconceptions I most frequently have to address:

  • .38 S&W is not the same as .38 Special
  • .38 Super is not the same as .38 Special
  • .357SIG is not the same as .357 Magnum
  • .32 S&W is not the same as .32 ACP (also known as .32 Auto)
  • 7.65 Browning is the same thing as .32 Auto
  • 6.35mm is the same thing as .25 ACP
  • .45 Colt is not the same as .45 ACP
  • .45 GAP is not the same as .45 ACP
  • 7.62×39 is not the same as 7.62x54R
  • 7.62×51 is pretty much the same thing as .308
  • 7mm Mauser is not the same as 7mm Remington Magnum is not the same as 7mm Ultra Mag is not the same as 7mm-08 is not the same as 7.5mm Swiss
  • 9mm Largo is not the same as 9mm Luger
  • 9mm Kurtz is not the same as 9mm Luger
  • 9mm Luger is the same as 9mm Parabellum
  • .38 Short Colt is…wait, where did you find .38 Short Colt?!?

Continued...
Ordnance

Some Bargains Aren’t

Gun show reloads strike again.  Fortunately, the gun was intact.

This is a casing from a 9mm reload, fired from a Glock 19.  It’s a standard-pressure, 115gr FMJ sold in bulk at local gun shows.  What you’re looking at is a case-head failure.  This can break a gun really quick.

It can also lead to severe injury.  Saving a few bucks isn’t worth taking such risks.

Ordnance

Marketing: 1935 and Now

When FN Herstal came out with the 5.7x28mm cartridge (and the accompanying Five-seveN pistol) a few years back, there was a bit of hand-wringing in certain circles over its ability to pierce body armor.

Bear in mind, the 5.7mm is really a souped-up .22 WMR, not some >5000 ft/s barnburner.  It’s not the first (or only) gun made that’ll punch through body armor.  Yet, everyone got their panties in a bunch over it.

Ordnance

Squib Loads

S&W Model 29 Mountain Gun. The loads were factory CorBon 200gr .44 Special. The operator was an experienced shooter with military training.

The shooter started with .44 Magnums, then switched to Specials. It’s likely that he expected the milder report and recoil of the .44 Special loads and therefore didn’t notice the discrepancy at first.

Surprisingly, the ejector rod is fine, as are the topstrap and cylinder. Looks like a new barrel assembly should have her back up and running. The shooter was wearing eye protection and was not hurt.

Lesson learned: be careful when switching between Magnum and Special loads, as you might not pick up on the difference in time.

Ordnance

It’s too late to paddle

4 comments

OK, I think I get it. A hostile alien race is planning an imminent attack on Earth. Conventional weapons are useless against them, but owing to their squishy physiology, the meager .380 ACP cartridge is the only thing that can stop them.

Am I close? Because that’s the only reason I can see for the inexplicable shortage of .380. Some folks are stockpiling it like there’s no tomorrow, while those who were late to the party seem to be going into apoplexy over the sudden shortage.

Demand quickly exhausted the supply, and now we’re seeing crap like this:

Ordnance

Fun with Handloads

185gr Golden Sabers loaded on ~6.5 grains of HP38. Nice and warm, and just scratching at supersonic. The best part is, I didn’t have to do the work. A customer of mine took up reloading, and I’m just the (quite) willing guinea pig.

Given the current economic downturn and the trend of hoarding ammunition to the point of scarcity, many folks are turning to reloading. More power to them!

Reloading isn’t just about saving money. It allows you to tailor loads to your specific gun and situation, and once you’ve got the process down, you can achieve accuracy easily surpassing many factory loadings.

Case in point: I’ve got a marvelous .38 Special defensive load that runs a 125gr XTP over 8 grains of HS6. It reaches 1220ft/s out of a 4″ barreled revolver, and falls just subsonic in a snubnose, all while running at less that 20,000 CUP. That’s a bit warmish for factory loads, but still well within the tolerances of a good gun.